The second chapter of the renewed rivalry between the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever took place on Saturday afternoon in Indianapolis, with CBS picking up the showdown between rookie sensations Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. The last time the two teams met, the Fever got the win in a chippy contest that became the talk of the sports world, particularly a Flagrant foul by Chennedy Charter on a hip check of Caitlin Clark as she waited for an inbounds pass.
As has often been the case with things involving Clark, the conversation about the foul moved far beyond normal basketball talk and became a much bigger deal than it needed to be. So, when the two teams met again on Sunday, there were plenty of people tuned in to see the star rookie matchup between Clark and Reese (and Kamilla Cardoso), but also folks looking to see if there’d be any more extracurriculars. The Sky moved Carter into the starting lineup to get her point of attack defense on Clark, but the two had clearly moved past the initial incident.
The game moved through the first half without incident in a highly entertaining game that saw the Fever again holding a narrow advantage, but late in the third quarter the two rookie stars came together as Reese went for a block on a Clark drive, but missed the ball and caught the top pick across the side of the head.
Caitlin Clark is fouled while driving to the basket pic.twitter.com/U9TvoFUoD3
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) June 16, 2024
Reese was unsurprisingly assessed a Flagrant 1 after a quick review, as that’s just the standard penalty for catching a player in the head. It was clearly not an intentional shot, as she simply missed the ball as Clark rose up for the layup, which is why there wasn’t a consideration of a Flagrant 2. Hopefully everyone can handle what is clearly just a basketball play in a much more normal manner than the last time we had a Flagrant involving Clark.
